The effect of military-physical training techniques on trust and trustworthiness

Abstract:
Military training is designed to enforce group cohesion. This objective is pursued at different levels and by different actions. Our research aims to find out whether military physical training techniques have a positive effect on some cohesion-related aspects: trust and trustworthiness. Specifically, by comparing the trust and trustworthiness of subjects playing an investment game who were previously exposed to military physical training techniques to others who are not exposed to it, but involved in a different simple task, we find that the military physical training techniques exhibit more trust and pro-social behaviors than the non-military physical training techniques on average. These effects seem not to be temporary.